News in English, of 13/09/1996

TITLES

Two wills of the late Andreas Papandreou submitted
to the Court.

Intense preparations for a hot television debate.

And, Greece's Olympic winners awarded by the Greek
president.

WILL

Founder of Pasok and former prime minister Andreas
Papandreou left his entire mobile and immobile
fortune to his widow, Dimitra Liani Papandreou.

These were his last wishes, as expressed in the two
wills, which were submitted Thursday morning to the
First Instance Court.

The first will was handed in by Dimitra Papandreou,
and the authenticity of its maker's signature was
confirmed by Andreas Papandreou's close partner,
Antonis Livanis. In this will, which was made in November 1990,
Papandreou included
two notes, one referring to his son-in-law Thodoros
Katsanevas, and the other to his widow, Dimitra.

"Thodoros Katsanevas is a disgrace to our family",
Andreas Papandreou wrote in the will. The late
president of Pasok was referring to an incident
that occurred in November 1990. When his secretary at the time,
Angela Kokola had gone to his
old residence in the Athens suburb of Kastri to pick up his
archives, Thodoros Katsanevas didn't
let her do it.

Andreas Papandreou, leader of the opposition party
at the time, intended to have the law on his son-in-
law as soon as this could be allowed by the political
circumstances. In his will, he also determined the
attitude he wanted his three sons to adopt. "They
have the moral obligation", he said, "as carriers
of our family's tradition to reveal in public the
role and the character of Katsanevas and to cut
any bond with him".

In the same will, Andreas Papandreou expresses his
deep feelings for his wife, Dimitra. "When I'll be
away, Dimitra will be in danger", he said. "She
will be laid blames of any kind. That's why I call
all of my friends to support her by all means".

And, he added, underlining the sentence, "Dimitra
is the big love of my life".

Later in the day, Andreas Papandreou's daughter, Sofia, wife of
Thodoros Katsanevas, said that his father never used such words
against her husband, with whom he had close relations of deep
respect and love. Sofia Papandreou
Katsanevas also disputed this will, saying that it must have been
made by her father in a state of pressure.

The same day Sofia submitted to the Court another will, asking
for it to be granted probate of. This will, made in May 1993,
declares again Dimitra Papandreou as the only heiress of his
fortune. Andreas Papandreou specified that he's leaving his name
to his children, Giorgos, Sofia, Nikos and Andreas.

DEBATE

The leaders of the two top-parties, Pasok's Kostas Simitis and
New Democracy's Miltiades Evert, will participate in a television
debate Friday night on a state television channel ERT.

The two parties' spokesmen met on Thursday to
discuss further details for the debate and agreed
on the presence of three journalists that are
commonly accepted by the parties.

The debate will be broadcasted on a national level. The
journalists will pose questions to the politicians, who will have
to answer within two
minutes.

New Democracy spokesman Prokopis Pavlopoulos commented that he
was sorry that the proposal of his party's leader for three
television debates, wasn't
finally accepted, and called Friday's debate "a monologue", not a
dialogue between the two politicians.

SIMITIS

"Pasok will surely win the elections", prime
minister Kostas Simitis said, ten days before the
national elections. On Thursday, he met with
Pasok's political secretariat to closely examine
Friday's television debate as well as the general
pre-election course of the party.

In the day's briefing, environment minister Kostas
Laliotis confirmed to reporters, that Pasok will
continue following firmly on its pre-election
strategy, showing off its work in the past and its
social and financial plans for the future.

Laliotis strongly attacked New Democracy leader
Miltiades Evert, who met with the Athens mayor
Wednesday. The environment minister blamed Evert
for the financial bankruptcy of the municipality
of Athens when he was mayor of the city in the 1980s.

"We insist on positive communication and the
proper briefing of the citizens", Laliotis said.

"That's how we reply to the provocations and the
lies of New Democracy", he added.

EVERT

On the eve of the television debate, which will
bring Pasok's Kostas Simitis and New Democracy's
Miltiades Evert face to face, the main opposition
party's leader has had successive meetings with
his party leading members, in order to be well
prepared for Friday night.

New Democracy spokesman Prokopis Pavlopoulos
referred to the recent polls which were published
and which showed that the top two parties are
neck and neck. "New Democracy is satisfied ofthese polls'
results", he said.

Three new surveys, two conducted for newspapers and one for a TV
station, came up with the same result, once again : Pasok and New
Democracy are in a dead heat going into the final stretch. The
polls, carried out by the companies Dimel,
ICAP and Research International, show that all of
the small parties could gain seats in the
parliament, while the percentage of the

SAMARAS

Talking about small parties, in his interview on
Antenna television Wednesday night, Political
Spring leader Antonis Samaras, called his party "a
power of control and change". He said that Spring
will surely be the third party in the parliament,
and called the rest of the parties to an open post-
elections dialogue.

From Thessaloniki, where he went on Thursday
morning, he criticised both Kostas Simitis and Miltiades Evert
for exploiting Greece's national issues and economy to gain more
votes. Samaras visited the city's local market and talked with
shop owners.

Later on Political Spring leader went to the town of Serres,
northern Greece, to held a speech in a rally of his party later
in the day.

SMALL PARTIES

Continuing with the rest of the small parties,
Communist party secretary Aleka Papariga
continued her visits to workplaces Thursday,
going to the shipbuilding zone of the
Athenian suburb of Perama.

Left Coalition leader Nikos Konstantopoulos was
in Thessaloniki, where he expressed once again
his optimism for the results of the elections. He
said, "These elections will confirm that there
have been major changes within the greek
society". His party hadn't achieved the
necessary percentage to get seats in the
parliament, after the last elections.

Democratic Movement's leader Dimitris Tsovolas
continued his tour in the Peloponese, visiting
the towns of Pyrgos and Argos.

UNIVERSITIES/REACTIONS

Yesterday, we heard that the education
minister decided to give a second chance for young people who
failed to get into one of Greece's universities this year.

There were strong reactions from the main
opposition party, as well as by some university
deans, who say the plan's too close to the the
start of fall term to be making changes.

New Democracy is accusing George Papandreou, the
eduction minister, for attempting to buy the votes
and hopes of the greek people, only ten days before
the elections.

The education minister has sent a note to the
university deans, asking them to tell him how many
additional students their institutions could take
in this year. Their answers should be given until
Friday. But, some of them have already answered
time is too short for being able to examine the
issue.

The education ministry promises that every higher
education institution will get additional money
for each additional student it takes in. George
Papandreou's goal is to get an increase of at
least 30 per cent in first-year enrolments until
the year 1999.

OLYMPIC WINNERS

Greece's gold and silver medalists in the 1996
Olympics were awarded in a special ceremony by the
president Kostis Stefanopoulos, who said something
special to tell each one of the athletes who made
the country proud.

"I'm giving this medal to you Pyrros Dimas. You
made us proud twice. I thank you one more time",
he told Dimas, who has got two Olympic gold
medals up to now in the weight-lifting.

Greeting Yiannis Melissanides, who gave Greece a
gold medal in gymnastics, Stefanopoulos said,
"You were fantastic, we all admired you. I wish you
every progress, my boy, not only in sports, but
also in the rest of your studies". 19-year-old Melissanides is a
also a medical student.

Nikos Kaklamanakis, who picked up gold number four
in wind-surfing, said, "It's very touching to see
the state as well as the common people to honour
you, but for us the greatest satisfaction is to
see more and more young people being involved
with sports".

And, Niki Bakoyianni, silver medalist in the
women's high jump, wished Greece to honour even
more Olympic winners every four years.

Several politicians attended the awarding
ceremony, most of whom refused to make any
political comments on the upcoming elections. New
Democracy leader Miltiades Evert said "All of
Greeks, and especially we, the politicians,
should do what our Olympic winners did : to
raise the Greek flag". And, New Democracy MP
Fani Pali Petralia added, "Greece's Olympic
winners showed us the way to consent, a way that we
all should follow in other fields of our country's
life as well".

TRAIN BOOK

Two train cars filled with books and dreams are
travelling destined to spread the love for the
books all over Greece as well as in the Balkans.

Greece's Train Organisation, in cooperation with
Northern Greece's Book Editors Association,
launched an original campaign for Greek books.

Thousands of books will be travelling on the
"Book Train " from Thessaloniki to entire
Greece, reaching the Balkan countries by the year
1997.